Now that Johnson is in, here's how New Mexican politicans weigh in

The U.S. House finally had a new speaker Wednesday after an arduous three weeks for the chamber’s Republican caucus that saw it put forth no less than four candidates for the post.

The election of Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson drew concern from the three members of New Mexico’s delegation, all Democrats, while the chairman of the New Mexico’s Republican Party believes the new speaker is an excellent choice.

Johnson previously served as majority deputy whip and is an ally of former President Donald Trump .

Before Johnson’s election, House Republicans had put forth three other nominees for House speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s unprecedented ouster in early October . All 220 Republicans who were present voted for Johnson, who is serving his fourth term in Congress. All Democrats voted against.

Third District Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández said Johnson’s proposals would hurt New Mexicans.

“We know that he supports a nationwide abortion ban,” Leger Fernández said. “He’s an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He’s repeatedly called to privatize Social Security. He voted against keeping the government open three weeks ago.”

“Don’t be fooled by Mike Johnson’s demeanor,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, who represents New Mexico’s 1st District. “He is Donald Trump’s speaker of the House.”

Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican Party chairman, served in Congress with Johnson previously when Pearce represented New Mexico’s 2nd District.

“We were on the Financial Services Committee together,” Pearce said in a statement. “He is a well-grounded, humble yet strong individual, and a steadfast advocate for conservative policies. He is an excellent choice to unite Republicans and lead America forward.”

In a speech after his election, Johnson talked about the U.S. border, bringing down inflation by reigning in federal spending, and the national debt, which he described as the “greatest threat to our nation’s security.” He said that Congress will establish a bipartisan debt commission to work on reducing the debt. Johnson also talked about the necessity for bipartisanship to address the nation’s issues.

“In this time of great crisis, it is our duty to work together,” Johnson said.

The House likely will be unable to pass all 12 budget resolutions needed to fund the federal government by the Nov. 17 deadline, said Leger Fernández in a press call Wednesday afternoon. Instead, the House likely will pass continuing resolutions as a stopgap.

New Mexico’s representatives expect to be in Washington next week working on appropriations bills. Johnson has sent his fellow representatives a “dear colleague” letter, outlining a schedule of when the appropriations bills could be passed that goes into the beginning of 2024.

“I want to highlight that this has potentially devastating impacts for our communities,” Stansbury said. “Because there was in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which was negotiated with President Biden in May, requirements for what’s called sequestration, or across-the-board cuts, and agency budgets if they did not pass a budget in time. Now, one might say, ‘Oh, this was just an accident and they didn’t intend to do that.’ But as we know, many of the folks on the GOP would like to see our agencies gutted, and this is a de facto way to cause across-the-board cuts to all of our programs.”

Leger Fernández said she expects the House to take up two supplemental bills to address what she called urgent funding needs — one addressing domestic needs, the other international. Regarding foreign spending, the representatives expect to take up an international security and humanitarian bill, which should include security and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, security funding for Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza.

“We need to remember that a vote against the Ukraine aid is a vote for Putin,” Leger Fernández said. “It’s a vote for authoritarianism.”

Johnson has previously voted against aid for Ukraine.

“I’m hopeful that this supplemental, because it has been well-received and supported in the Senate by Republicans, will be supported here in the House. But this will really test, I think, the new alliances that this speaker has put together as to whether or not he’s going to do the right thing and advance the needs of the American people,” Stansbury said.

There will also be a domestic supplemental taken up, which at least initially should include disaster funding, money to provide more immigration officers, and funding to address the fentanyl crisis, Leger Fernández said.

“We are facing that child care cliff where the American Rescue Plan Funds are running out, and we would have hundreds of child care facilities at risk of closing if we don’t address that child care cliff,” Leger Fernández said.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who represents New Mexico’s 2nd District, has been working on the National Defense Authorization Act, a version of which is also working its way through the Senate .

“We will see if new Speaker Johnson can actually negotiate in good faith with the Senate and with the administration on these bills to take out these toxic riders that Republicans put in under the last speakership that are going to be a non-starter with Democrats in the House,” Vasquez said.

Cathy Cook is a news reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com